Blog

As an illustrator and graphic designer, I'm able to do what I love for a living. That doesn't mean I'm content, satisfied, or even happy with a lot of what I do. I am creating this blog to share some insight that hopefully both you and I can learn from about my experiences in the world of designing for a financial and emotional living.

So here I am with the project description of basically, 'Do whatever you want!' which as most of you known, is a very liberating but also intimidating way to start a project. Especially if you're used to working on commissions directed by someone in charge.

The past few weeks have been busy and I thought I'd share what I've been working on while also documenting for myself. I'm going to try to do this every month at least (maybe 2 weeks) to keep in touch with the amount of notable work I'm producing! These are the projects that sometimes aren't fully portfolio worthy but always full effort and still telling a story

I wanted to share some shit sketches, better sketches, and final pieces of a few illustrations I did last week. In part because I think they came out great, just what I was aiming for, and the other part, to hopefully inspire people to remember to start small and work towards something.

This is my thanks to skateboarding, to every person I've ever skated with good or bad competitive or not. The vibes at the skateparks, the cops that have kicked me out of spots or even put cuffs on my hands. The handrails I've been on top of, the boards I've broken, the shoes I've ruined, the joints I've sprained and twisted. The kids that have asked me for pointers and those that have given them to me, the parents who have had real conversations asking me what it is that makes it so special at the skateparks. The local shops making it happen, treating kids like individuals and to my family for letting me pursue it. This is to them and the world of skateboarding.

Number one rule here moving forward was to keep it classy, do not get tacky with it, make it high quality, make the people want to wear these for a comfort level, style, and pride. I designed these shirts from scratch with shirts in mind. I did not take a coffee mug design and slap it onto a shirt. Different canvases and mediums deserve new thought from birth.

Lots of cool stuff going on the past few weeks leaving me wishing I was at least ten thousand times better at what I do. Last time I did this, some people seemed to pick up on some stuff they hadn't seen which is great! Hope that can continue!

I'm opening an online shop where I'll be forcing cute prints of animals and fruits down your throats in about a week after having the idea and desire for years. The goal has naturally changed drastically over the years, but the basic idea is the same.

Here’s how I sped things up without losing that blood sweat and tears magic touch. Who knows how it’ll work, but I wanted to document prior to starting, to help keep focus on what went right and wrong and how to improve.

Sharing some of my process and what I keep in mind when creating characters and more particularly, mascots for brands or products. Taking a lot of tips from video games, super heros, and traditional logo design, I try to break it down into 5 or 6 steps to keep in mind and my sub par reasoning as to why it's important for me. Going over the objective, story, concept, design, etc.